A review study assessed the effect of dental plaque control and periodontal therapy on prevention of gastric Helicobacter pylori recurrence. The authors conducted searches of electronic databases, and included controlled trials comparing periodontal treatment and eradication therapy of H pylori with eradication therapy alone for prevention of recurrence of gastric H pylori. They used the absence of recurrence of gastric H pylori after the first 3 months as an outcome measure to determine relative risk of persistence of gastric H pylori. The de­gree of heterogeneity among trial re­sults using Q and I2 statistics were estimated. The review found that 3 trials in­cluding 298 patients were eligible according to the inclusion criteria. Since significant heterogeneity was indicated by the Q statistics (P = .04) and I2 (69%), a random effects model to combine the data was used. The study found that compared with eradication therapy alone, the adjunction of periodontal therapy significantly reduced the relative risk of persistence of gastric H pylori by 63% (0.37 [95% CI 0.21-0.64], P = .0004) in patients with gastric diseases. The authors conclude that the adjunction of periodontal treatment to eradication therapy appears to reduce gastric H pylori recurrence compared with eradication therapy alone among patients with gastric diseases associated with H pylori. The results of this meta-analysis should be taken with caution because of the limitations in the primary data. (Source: Journal of Clinical Periodontology; doi: 10.1111/jcpe.12015)